Description

Shady sandstone bouldering area in Santa Barbara. High density makes this a very enjoyable area. There are some great taller problems, and a few excellent traverses. The rock quality is very good for the most part, but the area is relatively small.

Getting There

Take West Camino Cielo off the 154 in Santa Barbara. Short approach, 10 minutes or so down hill.

Start in the crack/seam of Jason's Favorite and traverse left, topping out on Aunt Bea (V4-5) or Flying Ant (> V5). Many possible variations. I've only done it by traversing into the two obvious starting holes of Aunt Bea and going up from there. This seems like the most natural finish with the boulder's current conditions. The traverse past the two holes gets quite thin very quickly. I suspect that continuing the traverse to finish on Flying A...[more]Browse More Classics in CA

Please DO NOT DRAW on the rocks! The Charlotte's Web area was covered in awful sidewalk chalk "art". If whoever did this needs to express their feelings about "peace, love, climbing" do it by picking up trash not graffiting the place. I spent a good long time brushing off the drawings and I really don't enjoy giving up my climbing time to pick up after assholes so stop doing this.

Hey, was just wondering if anyone had any info on this problem here. I think it's on the Great Shark Hunt (40' traverse) boulder, but the only mentions of problems here in the guidebook (O11) were Lets Troll! and Chummin', each of which descriptions don't seem to match this problem. I was starting on the big lip, moving up passed crimps to the sloping rail and then using some balancy moves passed slopes to gain the top. Just curious as I haven't seen anyone else work it, but it seems to be a great problem. Brickyard rips.

Made this little video (sorry for crappy video quality) for this climb 'cause I had my camera and it's actually quite a fun climb. Was wondering if you went about it similarly?

We scrubbed and climbed that route last year, calling it The Rats of Nimh, due to the rodent-nest sitting on the starting jug. Bernd thinks he may have done it sooner, but he can't quite remember. We call it V5 or V6, depending on the day.

Does anyone know anything about this route. Its on the same boulder as the picture above. Its on the face just left of the arete. It pretty much goes straight up on slopers and a couple smal crimps. Feels like a 4 maybe 5.

For the second time in the last year, I've had to mitigate forest-fire potential at the Yard'. On Friday night some campers dug a fire-hole directly under Grotesque Old Woman, and when I arrived for a bouldering session on Saturday morning, there was a SMOKING PIT OF ASHES. It was a hot and dry day, with a steady breeze. Eek. Needless to say, my friends and I had to sacrifice most of our drinking water to douse the pile of embers. That's not how I like to end a session of rock-climbing.

If you see potential culprits cavorting with fire at The Brickyard—or anywhere else in the hills— you might choose from the following options:

A) take a deep breath, remember that many of this generation were raised by the show "Jackass", and strongly discourage behavior. B) Do nothing

I vote for option "A". I have many friends who lost property and/or possessions in the Tea and Jesusita fire. They might not be so understanding.

Cleared out a few firepits the other day. One directly behind Charlotte's Web, the other under the start of Soot Patrol). Both blackened the rock pretty well, and the one near Charlottes still had some embers. Didn't get a chance to have a word with the people who left them (saw them on the way in) but I'll certainly do so if I see them around again...

Sure, though I can't guarantee you'll get only the positive characteristics, heh...

Really though, it's a lot of your little 'reminders' that have inspired some of the things I now do, such as always bringing a bag to pick up trash (makes it super easy to grab the little stuff, like cig butts, tape, cans etc) and just generally trying to leave the area nicer than you found it.

You want to climb here today, tomorrow and hopefully 20 years from now. Areas like this are rare, treat them with the respect they deserve.

If looking for a highly pleasant bouldering experience at the Brickyard I would recommend this circuit:

Deep forest arete->Way Under->Way under traverse->Charlotte's Web->Yeti->Watch the Dog->Smooth Criminal->Your project or move areas and keep it going with whatever problems you can think of. For a bonus do it in under 5 minutes.

Also maybe this deserves a separate discussion but I thought if people felt so inclined it would be cool to pool together some good circuits of all difficulties for the different SB bouldering areas (think Font minus the color coding). Any interest?

Okay, here's what I always did (back when I climbed there a lot): warm up on Yeti (3X), run up the hill and do Watch the Dog (3X), then Soot Patrol to the lip (3X), then finish by doing Akiba's Prison as many times as you can. If you fall off the latter problem before the end, get back on immediately and climb as far as you can.

This takes about 45 minutes to an hour if you keep moving. Think of it as a way to get tired quickly after work, if time is short.

The left side circuit is a bit more moderate but great at well. Usually the Coffee boulder amphitheater, to South Street, then Extremist, Shoehorn and finish with Font Problem.

A good warm up circuit, with some highballs off the bat to get the mind and heart going, with a few good tough sloper problems thrown in. And then it clears off the left side of the Yard and dumps you back near the middle for the rest of your sesh.

Nice, that was our idea too Andy...how to get a good workout in when you only have a little time after work. Doing many laps on Akiba's is definitely a good way to accomplish this.

Another one I used to try to do was a 4X4 consisting of Yeti, Sasquatch, Watch the Dog, and Soot Patrol to the lip. Not the most ideal since you have to do some running around but will get you pretty tired nonetheless and you can add harder variations of the problems if needed.

On a separate note does anyone know what's the deal with all the glossy chalk spots on the footholds of a lot of the problems at the yard (Yeti, Grotesque, Chralotte's...)? Many of these "holds" were loose flakes so I'm just a little confused. Was someone really bored and trying the lowest most awkward start possible for these problems? I believe they showed up last weekend sometime

My friends and I visited the area last weekend, and had a blast bouldering around the Lizard's Mouth area. We got lost trying to find the Brickyard though, as we ended up trespassing through a gate and wandering down a path for about 10 minutes before giving up and turning around. Can someone explain to me how exactly you get to the Brickyard/Playground? Or just a general gist of where it is? Is it on the other side of the road as Lizard's Mouth? Very confused.

If you're approaching Lizard's Mouth from the 154, then Brickyard is the first turnout when you take a right turn away from the ocean, into the mountains right after that big circular concrete platform thing. The trailhead is marked a bit inconspicuously by an old, rusting "no motor vehicles sign" on the left that isn't obvious from inside the car. Getting there by foot from the actual Lizard's Mouth is a bit more of a hike.

Thanks for the help! Unfortunately I still can't manage to find it on google maps. Can someone drop a pin on the trailhead on google maps and link it? Sorry, your directions were very clear but I am just screwing it up for some reason. I can't find any concrete platform thing and I've been combing that road with street view for almost an hour. Probably just because I'm not familiar with the area.